Catholic school nuns practically canonized John F. Kennedy, never ceasing to remind us students that he was the first Catholic President. By all accounts, Biden is a more devout Catholic and a more devoted family man than the philandering JFK. Yet, most white Catholics voted for Trump — and the more frequently they attend Mass, the more likely they are to be MAGA voters.
If lay Catholics are tepid in their support, many clergy are downright hostile toward the President, adopting what Timothy Busch of the right-wing Napa Institute calls “in-your-face Catholicism.” A large majority of the Council of Catholic Bishops voted to deny Biden communion with some priests claiming that “you can’t be a Catholic and a Democrat”. A few clergy believe that Catholic leaders discredited the legitimacy of Biden’s presidency and that this helped give “rise to the violence at the U.S. Capitol.” Who could miss the Christian symbols on display at the insurrection, including a statue of the Infant of Prague?
